Some More Drama
by Slipgate
Summary: A standalone story. Kim wants to ask Ron a favor. He never expected it to be such an emotional rollercoaster.


**Title: Some More Drama**

**Story summary: A standalone story. Kim wants to ask Ron a favor. He never expected it to be such an emotional rollercoaster.**

_**Disclaimer: Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, and the characters and events of the **_**Kim Possible**_** television series alluded to in this fiction are all the property of Disney, and are used without intent or expectation of profit solely for personal enjoyment. The debts I owe other fanfiction authors are indicated in my author's note after the end of the story.**_

**~*~*KP*~*~**

**Some More Drama**

**by Slipgate**

Kim and Ron were walking home from a trip to the mall. It was summer vacation, and the sun was shining brightly. Ron had noticed that Kim seemed preoccupied for the whole trip home. He had been debating saying anything, but he wasn't sure it would be received well.

Finally Kim seemed to hesitate for a moment, and Ron came to a stop, knowing that his patience was about to be rewarded. "Can we detour through the park, Ron?" she asked softly.

Ron looked around and saw that they were near the green expanse of Middleton Park. "I suppose so, Kim, but what's the deal? We're not far from home and the park will actually take us further away."

Kim turned to him and softly asked, "please?" Ron stopped. More than the word, something about Kim's eyes begged him to not ask for an explanation just yet. _Privacy?_ he figured.

"Sure, KP. Let's go through here."

They had walked into the privacy of some trees in the park, Ron following Kim's informal lead, before she hesitated again.

"Ron, can you do me a favor?" she asked, still softly.

"What is it, KP?" Ron asked encouragingly.

"Can you kiss me?"

Ron became absolutely still and his stomach lurched slightly. "Kim?" he asked, incredulously.

"I know I hurt you, Ron, but I know now I want to do this."

"Kim?" he asked again, his voice an octave higher.

"Rather than…" Kim hurried out, then tried to compose herself, "rather than kiss you when it might be unwelcome and hurt things between us even more… you might be like, 'what are you mocking me now Kim with what I can't have or something?' I want to… I want you to kiss _me_. Because I know I'm interested. I know I want this. But, you know, if you do go ahead and kiss me then I know that you want this too."

Ron stared at her, open-mouthed.

"I need to know that I'm not doing something that's unwelcome. I'm not… you know… I needed to take some time to figure out how I felt. And now I know how I feel, now I know what I want to do but… I don't want to do something else that is going to create trouble between us if you've decided that I'm not worth it… and you know you'd be right to think… you know you'd be justified to think that." Kim worked her way through what she was trying to say, losing her place, repeating herself, and rephrasing herself as she went along, desperately hoping for a chance.

"You rejected me, Kim." he said flatly, in the tone of someone who had clearly expected (and hoped) this wouldn't come up again.

"That's not what I did. I know it looks like that… I told you I needed time to figure out my feelings. Other than Erik and you, I used to actually take time and think about a crush before I did something about it. Erik was me being stupid, but with you… you'd only just told me your feelings the same day and I was making out with you. Something screamed at me that I shouldn't make every decision that fast. What would it do to our friendship if I'd made a choice too hastily and was just feeling vulnerable? I didn't want us to crash and burn as friends if I'd made a mistake."

It didn't seem the time to respond yet to Ron. It wasn't. Kim continued, "I needed time. I know you must've figured that was a lie since we haven't talked about it in the three months since. Or you must have thought it was an easy out. But it wasn't a lie, or an out. But," she paused to gather her breath, "these past three months I've been thinking about where my feelings do lie, and if I'm willing to try it out knowing that I have to make sure it works or I hurt my best friend. I was thinking about this all the time, especially when we weren't hanging out. And I figured it out."

"I know," Kim continued, "that asking you for time would hurt you some, but it was better than leading you on while I thought things through, if I turned out to not be feeling for you what you felt for me. I wanted to hurt you as little as possible, instead of finally admitting I needed time later and hurting you more. Like how you wanted to talk to me before we headed out the door at Middleton Days, remember?"

Ron nodded slowly, still processing what he was hearing.

"And I… I've been thinking things through, I've been watching what good friends we are and how much you care about me, and how much you were trying to still be a good friend and still watch my back and so on even though you thought your affections were denied… and I wanted to talk to you about this sooner, Ron, I so did… but I really wanted to be careful. I didn't want to finally bring it up again in a way that would only hurt you more if I realized I had still been too hasty and had hurt you doubly. I _needed_ to… I needed to really think about my priorities in life and how Bonnie had gotten me so hard with the Food Chain talk and all… I uh, I know how I feel for you now, and I want to be with you."

Ron was silent. His face was twitching, though, coming to the point where it might take on an expression other than the thin line his mouth had become.

"I also know that in all this time that I've spent figuring out my feelings… you know you already went out on a limb and you know, were rejected… it's been long enough that I don't know if you still have those feelings for me or if you've moved on from them. I don't want to do something that's unwelcome here. I want… I know how I feel about you, before I do something to jeopardize this more than I already have in the past I want you to be the one to kiss me so that I can know that you still… are willing and interested in me…"

Ron's face was contorted in a look of mixed puzzlement and hurt Kim couldn't even begin to describe.

"I can promise you that if you kiss me, that it'll be passionate… no, um, it will be… everything you wanted… it'll top that kiss at Prom." Kim finished, breathing heavily with her heart thundering in her chest.

Finally, Ron spoke. "So you want me to kiss you, do you?" There was hurt under that voice. Hurt he'd been burying for months to try to remain a friend to his KP like he'd been before Junior Prom night. Hurt that he'd been burying since the fateful Bueno Nacho trip the next morning.

"You want… after all I've been through… for me to… put my heart on the line again? I mean, so what if you kiss me passionately today? How can I know for sure that that'll mean diddly-squat tomorrow? That that will… still might mean nothing to you tomorrow." Ron was angry, incredulous, and struggling not to be growling… and not succeeding.

"Ron, I know I hurt you. And I hurt _us._ But there's something important about that you have to know. When I hurt _us_ I also hurt _me_. I need you too. But I _needed _some time to figure out what I was feeling and what I was thinking so if I were to hurt you again Ron, I'd be hurting myself. And if you don't believe me that I don't _want_ to hurt you, at least believe the _selfish_ version that I don't wanna hurt myself."

Ron looked at her. He now knew why she'd been fidgeting and why she'd wanted privacy. "Still, Kim," he finally offered, "you're asking me to kiss you instead of kissing me. How can I be so sure you feel what you're saying for me?"

"I know Ron… it's not… the problem is, is that at one point or another, someone's already… someone has to do the leap of faith at the other one, at the risk of getting hurt."

Ron's look silently reminded her that he'd already taken his turn at that leap of faith.

"I know, I know that I rejected you and now I'm asking you instead of doing it myself… but I just… I don't want to do something unwelcome. I want you to know that I'm _here_, and that you could be in _Liplock City_ if you just make the move. I guess I wanna know that you actually feel the same way, and I want to re-establish your trust in me. You needed some time before you realized your feelings and approached me, too, right? I was surprised by what you said and I needed to spend time thinking about it too… that's all I meant to happen. I know I took longer, and I'm sorry for that. I was scared, but I did need time to think about this stuff… and I'm here now, if you're still there."

Ron's frown deepened.

Kim was frantic with desperate hope. "After everything I told you, if you're _not_ willing to kiss me, so be it, I mean, worst comes to worst, I'll know the pain I put you through then." A breath, then, "but if you are willing to kiss me, Ron, then that tells me that I haven't lost my chance with you, that you're still willing to be with me if the opportunity has presented itself. And I need to know that, I want to know that. If you are willing to kiss me, if you still have any feelings for me, I can guarantee you here that you're going to have a hell of a make out session on your hands. If not… I understand and I deserve it."

Finally, he spoke. "All right…" he muttered.

Her ears perked. "All right?" she asked, hopefully.

"All right…" he said again, and there was something off about his tone. "You want me to kiss you? You really want me to kiss you? Well fine!" and suddenly Ron was holding Kim's arms above their elbows in his large hands. Before Kim could say anything else in her startled state, she felt his mouth close on hers.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

This wasn't romantic, like Prom had been. This wasn't cute and sweet, like Ron's reaction to the kiss when Kim was under the influence of the Moodulator. This wasn't any of those things because those were then. This was now. Ron was fiercely pressing his lips to hers, exploring her startled mouth with his tongue not so tenderly, and gripping her arms fiercely and not gently. The body language was all wrong.

Kim understood the quivering anger and unsentimentality in his body language, but part of her knew that it was what she reaped for hurting him before and then not explaining herself for months. Ron had been trying to keep up the veneer of friendship, but she knew that she was seeing the roiling anger he'd actually felt for her for the past few months. She didn't respond in like with her body language, hoping and praying that he'd be able to burn away and vent out his anger and his pain and then… _then I hope he still finds he cares about me enough to give me a chance again_, she thought silently.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Ron felt the familiar lips, tasted the familiar tongue. He couldn't process any of them, though. He invaded Kim's mouth with his tongue and pressed hard against her lips. It was sort of like how a person who was angry might end up banging a door with a little too much force if asked to close it. He couldn't help but vent the buried and now exhumed pain.

The anger continued to cloud his senses for a time… but slowly the sensations sank in. He was tasting Kim's lips again. Like the other times, they were irresistible. Like the other times, he perceived the taste of the cherry lip balm that she would apply. He'd been curious about it since the day he'd seen her smack her lips at him in front of the Robot Club. He'd tasted her lips only twice before but had never forgotten them. Nor had he forgotten the scent of her skin. It had been hard enough when these remembrances had been burned into him one day in front of a locker, but to have felt like he might be the luckiest guy in the world on Prom Night only to hear "we need to talk" the next morning had crushed him and made him bitter. He realized that he was once again experiencing these things, but that he was so lost in bitterness he hadn't even realized it.

As the sensations sank in slowly, Ron Stoppable remembered the feelings that he'd felt were denied and trodden on three months ago. Though buried for the sake of friendship and due to hurt, they had never quite gone away. His body language began to change. He couldn't make up for the way he'd responded so far, but hopefully Kim would notice the change. His grip on her arms slackened, and slowly his arms came gently around her waist. His fierce kiss slowed in speed and roughness but grew in intensity. He retracted his tongue and then tentatively brought it forward again slowly, entreating calmer entry. _I'm actually here… I'm actually doing this…_ passed through Ron's mind… and then the anger fell away and the passionate need took its place.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

While Ron couldn't be 100% sure that Kim Possible had detected the change in his body language or emotions, he would've been relieved to know that she had detected the shift. _Thank God_, Kim thought to herself, doing cartwheels in her head as she took her arms from where she'd kept them inoffensively at her sides and wrapped them around his back, sliding them up to his neck.

She had begun responding to his passionate need with her own, strongly felt, which had desperately hoped it would get the chance to show itself to Ron this day. She needed to show him a difference in her kiss from before too, so that he would know that she was there too as far as their feelings went.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Gradually their lips pulled apart. Kim's lips were bruised slightly from the less than gentle beginnings of the kiss, but Ron tried not to think about that too much. He hoped that she'd noticed the change in his kiss. He thought she might have, considering he'd noticed the change in hers. But they hadn't said a word to each other since his angry outburst.

Looking at Kim silently, Ron suddenly realized that they were still embracing. Kim had pulled back far enough for their eyes to see each other but wasn't moving away otherwise, silently watching him.

His confusion must have displayed on his face, because she spoke again. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea, Ron. I'm not going to pull away from this embrace before you do, so that you don't think I'm pulling away from you. Just whenever you're ready you can step back. You'll know that it's not me saying 'it's over.' I hurt you badly enough before that I'm literally on eggshells here with even my body language, Ron, but I'm willing to be on eggshells for you if that's what it takes for you to trust me again. I know I hurt your trust, Ron, and I want to fix that."

Ron pulled back a little more so they could look at each other more clearly.

"Is this real? You really spent all this time, especially whenever you weren't with me, thinking about us and trying to figure out where you stood, because you were worried about the permanent results?" he finally asked, his voice vulnerable instead of angry.

She nodded mutely, but then realized that wasn't clear enough or strong enough. "Yes… all this time…" she whispered.

"I can't help but remember, Kim…" he managed to get out, "us passionately kissing at Prom and I still had my heart thrown back at me the next day. How do I really know that you won't meet me in BN tomorrow morning and say 'Ron, we need to talk' like you did back then? How do I really know you won't do that to me again?"

Kim paused, looked into Ron's eyes, and then spoke with what strength was left to her voice. "The only two things you can do, Ron… trust me and know I've trusted you. I know anything I say here is just words because who knows what tomorrow brings, right? But what I can tell you is that I can just ask you to _trust me_ that I won't do that, just like I'm trusting you _today_ to not throw my heart back at me. I didn't know if you would or not but I trusted you that you wouldn't. Like the trust I had in you today, and I know it's just trust… I want you to know that I'm trusting _you_ with my heart, and I want you to be able to trust _me_ with yours."

There was a pause. Ron was about to say something when Kim continued, "The only thing I can say about trusting me with your heart tomorrow, Ron, is that I was going to trust you with my heart today. I've extended the same power to hurt me today that I have over you tomorrow… and you didn't, and I intend to remember that tomorrow."

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Ron Stoppable awoke the next morning. As consciousness returned, he had a surreal feeling, and his brain eventually supplied him with the events of the previous day. _Unreal_, he thought. It wasn't a dream, but here they were… the next day. Part of him hoped Kim hadn't reconsidered, and part of him feared she had. After all, Ron Stoppable had been in this heady rush before… the morning after the Junior Prom. And Ron Stoppable was nothing if not a man of his defense mechanisms.

"I'm sure that Kim will wish she hadn't made such a hasty decision again today, just like before." Ron muttered. He wasn't sure if he was talking to anyone in particular, but a glance to his side showed that Rufus was still sound asleep.

Suddenly the phone rang. A glance at it showed that it was from Kim. He answered cautiously. "Hello?"

"Hey Ron, can you meet me at the BN in like 10 minutes?"

Ron stared at the phone hatefully. Kim may not have realized it, but she said the exact same thing to him the morning after Junior Prom, and then proceeded to tear his heart apart at the restaurant. _Yesterday she said to trust her,_ he reminded himself. _So far it's just_ _asking me to go to BN. Don't read anything else into it yet._ He struggled to respond normally. He realized he had some warm tears in his eyes from the conclusion he'd jumped to. He said, "Sure, KP… I'll see you in ten minutes, let me just get cleaned up."

_She said to trust her,_ he reminded himself again when the phone was back on the receiver. Ron quickly went to his bathroom, shucking off his shirt and running a wet towel down his sides, back, and front as a quick substitute for a shower. He washed his face and got his composure from the tears before under control, then combed his hair and pulled on his usual hangout clothes.

**~*~*KP*~*~**

Kim was sitting in their usual booth at the BN, wearing her green tank top and capri pants. _If only every aspect of this wasn't already familiar_, Ron thought and he gripped his hair for a moment before sitting down.

Like before, Kim looked him in the eye, and reached across the table to grip his hands in hers.

_Oh God the body language is all the same… now she's going to say 'Ron, we need to talk.'_

"Ron," Kim began, and then smiled, "Ron, we need to make out."

_**fin**_

**~*~*KP*~*~**

_**Author's Notes:**__ Unlike my previous offering, this fiction has the curious distinction of being the kind of KP fanfiction I generally avoid. It runs somewhat counter to how I normally interpret Kim and Ron in the series or in fiction. However, I somehow came up with and wrote this anyway. I share it with you all to see just what you all think of it. Was this story too bitter throughout for the ending to make much headway in repairing the hurt, or did the ending mitigate the bitterness somewhat? Was the dense, repetitive dialogue believable emotional unplanned dialogue or just dense and repetitive? Do people feel like I off-railed Ron or was he still within that strata of believability? I'm curious to what feedback this will receive._

_The idea of a Kim who has second thoughts after kissing Ron at the Junior Prom is thanks to the story _Deceptions and Robots _by __**Mountain King**__ (it's a _Kim Possible / Transformers/Beast Wars_ crossover). The turn of phrase 'passionate need' is from __**Cyberwraith9**__._

_Thanks to any readers who have been willing to read this small effort. If you leave a review, I will be glad to provide a response._


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